slavestate Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 Hello there, I've been absent from the internet for almost a month now and it's been extremely exciting! I'm happy to have spent so much time away. I recently found a job locally at a fabrication shop and I'm excited to say I'm welding/fabricating fulltime now. The pay isn't the best, but the knowledge and experience I'm obtaining is far more important than any salary at this point. Hopefully after a couple of months sticking it out I will be able to ask for more pay, or potentially a new gig will arise. This past weekend I took Thursday and Friday off to entertain my parents who came and visited my fiance and I. My father had intentions to help us with a project around the house, so we agreed to rip out the old deck and install a new one. We spent about 1.5 days ripping the old deck out and putting a new one up. We also had time to install a nice new fence in the front yard of the house. It was very pleasant of a project to get wrapped up in, especially since my father lives about 8 hours away and we never much got to do stuff like this when I was younger. I've become somewhat handy in the past couple of years, so he was quite surprised at my ability to have at it, ha! The basic stockade we installed on the front is actually going to be taken down and used to repair some damaged sections in the backyard. We have ordered some decorative stockade for the front which will arrive in a couple of weeks. We've got some dogs in the house so at the very least something had to go up. I installed latch that is only accessible from the inside of the fence to ensure that nobody can just walk into the backyard since we have our dogs out most of the time. It also gives the front facade of the fence a very sleek vibe. This upcoming weekend I have planned to finish the skirting on the deck for underneath the stairs as well as start working on a real workbench in the basement. I just noticed in the photos of the new deck you can plainly see how haggard our old front fence was... Ha! Here's some photos of our work we accomplished this weekend: Anyone else have any DIY fixer-upper projects planned this spring?
quapman Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 Looks great man! Now yer all practiced up come do mine,, lol. Ya I have several projects for this spring/summer. I too will be building a deck and hopefully finishing my landscaping. I re-graded the foundation around my house 2 years ago. Rented a bobcat and had at er. So my yard has looked like a construction site. Did some paving stone last summer and have more to do this summer. I also have another 12 or 1300 sq ft of hardwood to finish laying. I got the family room done last fall. Being a homeowner is too much work.. lol.
slavestate Posted April 24, 2013 Author Posted April 24, 2013 I have to regrade the whole property. It's actually pretty terrible. For some reason there are tons of high and low spots, and most of my drainage from the gutters (most of which aren't even attached) pour right into the ground near our foundation. Luckily in our basement I don't see any signs of water issues, yet. I'm anticipating renting a bob-cat, or borrowing one from work (if I'm lucky). I installed a washer and dryer in the basement not too long ago with a bunch of new copper piping and it's draining into our cesspool currently. It's really not the best situation because from what I've been told the detergents eat away at the cesspool structure over time. I figure for a half a year it won't do too much damage. When I regrade the property I'm going to dig a trench around the parimeter of the house and have it attach to a dry well. This way the drainage from the washer and dryer as well as the gutters will have a nice place to go, away from the house and not into the cesspool. Luckily on the front of the house the grade is sloping towards the street so I can get away with a nice elbow attachment on the gutter to keep the water away from the house. We installed 3/4" oak hardwood in our bedroom, about 168 sq ft, which is nothing compared to what you have planned! But we have another 500 or so on the first floor that needs to be finished. I picked up a nice pneumatic nailer and that really made things go quick with the installation. What's first and foremost on our list is a new roof. It's leaking in a few spots, nothing major just some minor flashing issues but with 3 'effing layers of roofing on top of all of that rotten plywood, it has to get done this fall. We have a little cottage/cape that is very Craftsman in a lot of ways, so we anticipate putting in some nice "dog house" windows upstairs to get some light in. We'll do that when the roof is replaced. And it really is a tiring joy owning my own house! Mostly because I can play my guitar as loud as I want .
Izzy Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 That porch is impressive...time well spent. Increasing the value of your home and making it all pretty. Rock on! Now the wife won't nag about new gear. "I saved us thousands on that porch and fence." SCORE!
slavestate Posted April 24, 2013 Author Posted April 24, 2013 Thanks Izzy, It's really not too hard to do. Just measure, cut and screw! There are some flaws, however they give it character. You know... It's funny you mention gear. Before I was hired I was contemplating selling a BUNCH of gear to pay for stuff and she said to me "Keep it. You use it and it means a lot to you". Because of those words I make sure I put in just a little bit more effort when I am doing our repairs. It's totally true though. Take a calculation of materials add tax and double it. That's what any contractor in our area would charge, assuming they know you. Otherwise It's about tripple for materials and labor. I'd say that's a great savings to invest in gear!
btoth76 Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 Hello! Very nice job! (If I think of the amount of work to be done on my house, I could tear my hair out... ) Cheers... Bence
pippy Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 Really nice work, slavestate, it looks great! ...Take a calculation of materials add tax and double it. That's what any contractor in our area would charge, assuming they know you. Otherwise It's about tripple for materials and labor... A friend of ours - a single female - needs repairs to three walls; one (brick) which needs a couple of new coping stones, one wooden which just needs a hand-rail re-siting and a wooden panel-board fence which needs two new panels. She asked for quotes from builders. The lowest she got was £450 ($686 and change) all-in. Thinking this perhaps a bit steep she asked if I would like to cost it out and do the work for a fair fee. The cost of materials works out at exactly $80.37 including the delivery charge. It will take me roughly two hours from start to finish. The pro's obviously have to make a living but $600+ profit for two hours work?...... Or, perhaps, were they trying to take advantage of a female living on her own? P.
btoth76 Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 Hello! (Re-)Building things around the house can be a real nightmare. I was thinking about covering my house with polystirol insulation to save on heating. The total cost quoted by pros was around 2 million Forints (cca. 8160 USD). The total cost of materials - I have calculated with the guy behind the counter in the shop where they sell this insulation system - is about 250.000 Forints (cca. 1020 USD). Cheers... Bence
Rabs Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Looks good man I may be re-training as a carpenter soon.. :) And actually doing stuff like decking and stairs is something I may try and get into (and building guitars from old doors of course :P :))
surfpup Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Or, perhaps, were they trying to take advantage of a female living on her own? No! Really?
cjsinla Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Really nice work, slavestate, it looks great! A friend of ours - a single female - needs repairs to three walls; one (brick) which needs a couple of new coping stones, one wooden which just needs a hand-rail re-siting and a wooden panel-board fence which needs two new panels. She asked for quotes from builders. The lowest she got was £450 ($686 and change) all-in. Thinking this perhaps a bit steep she asked if I would like to cost it out and do the work for a fair fee. The cost of materials works out at exactly $80.37 including the delivery charge. It will take me roughly two hours from start to finish. The pro's obviously have to make a living but $600+ profit for two hours work?...... Or, perhaps, were they trying to take advantage of a female living on her own? P. I had a similar experience with a small job, got a very high bid. I was thinking that some guys may bid high as a way to make a small job worth their while. May also be a way to avoid small jobs that they don't see as very profitable otherwise. But, doing it yourself if you can certainly does give you more gratification than watching someone else do it.
RaysEpiphone Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Nice deck man! My dad and I built the one on our house, well we did a lot of the work. We put up the original open deck not long after the house was built. A few years afterwords we had a builder put up a basic extension of the house over top of it so it would pass inspection and we did the finishing.
10K-DB Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Great job,its always fun to complete something built with your own hands! Everything looks level+square on the deck,,are you going to stain it,or clearcoat it? Nice job.
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